Wade's Blog

Date: 10/11/11

Carbon is the fourth most common element in the universe. Carbon takes a variety of forms including diamond and graphite. Scientists have discovered a new form of carbon that can withstand pressures that previously only diamond could withstand. In the 1950s a team of scientists compressed a form of carbon, called glassy carbon, to above 400,000 times the normal atmospheric level. The new carbon form was capable of withstanding 1.3 million times the normal atmospheric level. No other substance other than diamond is capable of withstanding this level of stress. This new form of carbon is different than diamond because it isn’t organized in repeating atomic units.

I thought it was interesting that this new form of carbon could potentially be more useful than diamond. Since it is amorphous, it doesn’t have an order of crystals. If the new form of carbon turns out to be isotropic, this means having equal strength on all sides, then it could have an advantage over diamond since diamond ‘s strength depends on which side the crystal is facing.